“Father of a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife and I shall have my vengeance in this life or the next..”

That kinda explains the entire plot.

A general from Spain, Maximus (Russell Crowe), brave and respected by his soldiers has won the emperor’s heart. Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) is dying and prepares to let Maximus rule Rome to solve all the social problems caused by way too many wars and a lot of corruption in the Senate.

There is a problem to the plan though, named Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), who happens to be the emperor’s son and the logical successor to the throne. When Marcus Aurelius makes Maximus the protector of Rome, Commodus takes matters in his hands and kills his old father, while trying to murder Maximus too. The general somehow escapes and heads towards home, to see if his family is OK and save them from the new emperor’s fury.

When he arrives to his lands he finds the home burnt down and his wife and son murdered by the emperor’s soldiers. He’s then captured and sold in North Africa as a slave to Proximo (Oliver Reed), thus becoming a gladiator.

Commodus is now back in Rome, trying to serve his people “bread and circus”, to distract the population from hunger and plague. He un-bans the gladiators’ fights in the Colosseum and Maximus is brought to fight there too, with his team of gladiators.

From now on you can imagine what happens in the entire movie, I will not spoil it for you.

Even if the plot is dead easy and the movies is far from being perfect, there are still aspects that made it a good one. The Rome scenes have been shot in a “plaster like” surrounding, history contradicts some of the things presented in the movie, the entire plot is similar to any blockbuster movie with a hero with a huge gun in his hands, killing everything in his way. Still, Gladiator has something that justifies in the end all the awards and nominations it has received.

The filming is “gloomy” all through the movie. This has made some critics displeased with the idea, but in the end I think it best conveys the pain and dangers such a person had to face. The movie speaks about love, family and heroism. Maximus is well respected by his armies, he’s been a true hero and Rome could have dreamed for no better protector than him. He was a good loving husband and great father, but treachery destroyed his life.

And another thing that made me watch it for 3 times already is the MUSIC.

This movie has got an amazing soundtrack, created by Lisa Gerard (Dead Can Dance) and Hans Zimmer. And since almost all critics failed to notice the amazing music it had, I’ll invite you to listen to the title song “Now We Are Free”

The red light district in Calcutta is known for its misery, drug dealing, alcohol, poverty and of course prostitution. In such a place, with no chance for any contraception, “work accidents” happen. These “accidents” have to live there, clean in the shacks (cannot call these homes), exit the room when their mothers are “working”, put up with abuse and absolutely zero chance for an education and a life out of there. The kids who are around the age of ten are heading for the same lives as their mothers and grandmothers. The girls are forced into prostitution the moment they hit puberty, we don’t find out about the boys, but they seem to share a similar destiny.

Among all these people, some of the kids are brilliant and would deserve another chance.

This is what Zana Briski (the creator, also a photographer) thinks too. She’s been there for a while, trying to take pictures of the people who live in that miserable area. Of course, being “white” and carrying a camera, doesn’t help with her blending in. Anyway, while doing her job, she is drawn to the kids. The brothels in Calcutta are filled with children. They are naughty, and smart and smile, even if their lives don’t quite qualify for the “funniest lives award”.

She gives them cameras and guides them to photograph. The new materials help her in the job, while the kids start learning about photography. They learn to comment on a photo, understand what makes one beautiful and all kinds of technical details.

You can imagine how fascinated the little ones are and how they “work” to get the best pictures they can. Some of them says something that just breaks your heart “we like to take photos more than we like to work”. They have to clean, wash dishes, carry water and put up with cursing and beatings. This is their escape from their sinister lives. Imagine it or not, these little photographers develop nicely and some get absolutely amazing pictures. They can see the beauty in the misery surrounding them and their pictures are (some) absolutely remarkable.

One of them, Avijit (a boy), shows so much talent he wins an Amsterdam trip. Getting him the papers and then a passport is an extreme experience, because of the huge bureaucracy and the fact he is a prostitute’s child. Briski starts preparation to get papers and health documents for all “her” kids, in her desperate attempt to get them to boarding schools so that they can get an education.

Some of these kids are not allowed to leave home, some are taken back by the parents, some leave the boarding school to return home. One runs from home to the school and few are still there, trying to learn and change their destiny.

The documentary speaks of a world that gives no chance to these kids. Most of them might be dead now or with years of being “on the line”, and few might have gone through some years in school. Only very few can become something else than “meat” in the red lights district.

It’s a sad and yet remarkable documentary about humanity and second chances. And misery taken to an extreme. It will leave you with tears in your eyes, but it’s definitely worth watching and recommending.

“The Remains of the Day” is based on Kazuo Ishiguro‘s novel, something no one would have been able to imagine as being made into a movie. I have read the book when in college (years after seeing the movie) and, contrary to The Empire of the Sun (when the book seemed just badly written, while the movie was in my opinion brilliant), in this case it’s hard for me to say which is the best. When you have two amazing actors (Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins) chances are you’re gonna see a pretty good movie.

1958. It’s been years since they’ve last seen each other. The butler and the housekeeper, two people who have spent years tending for Darlington Hall (a famous country side), while turning a blind eye on what could have been a beautiful love story. But who has the time for love, when there’s so much work to do and society itself doesn’t quite “promote” free speech when it comes to feelings and passion.

Stevens, the butler, is now driving across England to the sea, to visit Miss Kenton. Officially, he’s trying to persuade her to resume her position at Darlington Hall, under the new “master” (a retired American congressman). In fact he just wants to see her and maybe try say to her what he failed to communicate so many years. While the journey unfolds so do his memories.

They used to work together and serve Lord Darlington, to the best of their abilities. Stevens has an old father who also worked as a butler and made sure to instill in his son the same spirit or duty. Such strong these teachings are that his son will carry on with the serving, while his father is dying upstairs. Stevens knows about his duty and that’s all. Duty trumps family, duty trumps love, duty trumps everything.

Does this sound absurd? It surely does.

Let’s still remember the novel was created by a Japanese writer. I dare say Stevens is just another type of a Samurai, who has to ignore anything and everything and serve his lord. As a samurai has to draw his katana and kill his family if his lord demands this, so Stevens has got to put everything aside and do his DUTY.

Stevens does feel something for Miss Kenton but he is too focused on this job to allow himself to care. Not to mention he’s doing the mistake we all do in the end, of believing time will wait for us. Time doesn’t wait. Love doesn’t wait. People vanish from our lives, if we chose to ignore them.

The butler is not a stupid man, nor does he lack sex-appeal or some sort of personal charm. This is the reason Miss Kenton has “feelings” for him too. Still, he’s narrow-minded and too focused on the job, to allow their love to blossom.

And now, as he is driving towards her, we have to ask ourselves: is it too late?

One of the addicts is Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), who’s got two “problems”: sugar and TV. She’s spending too much time watching a game show whose host (Christopher McDonald) leads his audience to chant “We got a winner!”. Sara gets a phone call that misleads her into thinking she might appear as a guest in the show. That’s when she realizes she’s not fit for TV like this and embarks into a weight loss program based on diet pills.

As she’s losing weight, something is happening to her brains too. Even if she’s having hallucinations, her doctor doesn’t pay attention to this. As she’s increasing the dose, so is she losing her mind.

Her son, Harry (Jared Leto) is suffering from a less “exotic” addiction, but more expensive too. He’s always taking his mom’s TV to the pawn-shop to get the money for his drugs, while she’s recovering it so that she can feed her own addiction. His girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) and best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) are also addicts, always looking for a big score that “will get us back on track”.

One recurring scene, the key to the movie, is used to show how the drugs take effect and how mechanical everything is for these addicts: one extreme closeup to the pills/fix, injection/swallowing/sniffing. The pupils dilate. The sounds are extremely strong and all happens in fast-motion, since drugs don’t need to much to take effect.

The movie is absolutely “painful” and amazingly depicts how desperate addicts are for a “shot” and how their lives get destroyed by this addiction that leaves no place for anything else. Some of the scenes and shocking, the entire movie is not something to enjoy seeing. It’s that kind of a movie you see once and wouldn’t see again. Not because it’s bad, but because it has left you speechless.

This is not a “feel-good” movie, there’s no fun in it. As there is no fun in being addicted. And, after seeing this movie, I really doubt anyone would enjoy a “joint” anymore. Even if it’s not suitable for adolescents, I’d surely show it to my kids if they ever thought about messing with any “substances”. If this is not a wake-up call, then nothing is.

Please watch the movie and be prepared to be amazed. It’s worth the effort.

Is it possible to show the lives of some lawyers, their work and problems and even create a comedy out of it all?

Ally McBeal proved this can be done. And the show wasn’t just “nice” it was VERY funny. Imagine you had one man in your life. Your first love, the best friend your entire childhood, first man you kissed and so on. He’s the reason you’re studying Law, he’s the reason you are an attorney now. And he’s gone for a while, and you’re still trying to mend that broken heart.

And, after having problems with your boss, you’re invited by an old coleague to join his brand new spanking law-firm. Filled with young sexy people and a very relaxed style.

Everything looks perfect to young Ally McBeal, who’s occasionally seeing a dancing baby and is always prone to accidents. Even so, her career at least starts looking very good. Almost perfect, if we don’t consider her ex-lover is there. And married to a superb wife, who’s also working as an attorney.

There’s no one “perfectly” sane in the firm. All associates have their quirks, there’s a lot of “drama” and sexual tension, the dialogues are fast and funny and the soundtrack just amazing. Back then Vonda Shepard was a “nobody” back then, but the show established her as a music star.

Here is the cast (main actors) and few words about each:

• Ally McBeal (Calista Flockhart) – the anorexic main character. Always falling, always bumping her head. And, when not in love with the wrong man, she’s seeing a dancing baby.
• Richard Fish (Greg Germann) – one of the owners. He’s got a wattle fetish, is a serial womanizer if I can use the term and wraps his sexist ideas under the “name” of fishisms.
• Elaine Vassal (Jane Krakowski) – the slutty assistant. As all the members of the Cage and Fish firm she’s also facing a lot of troubles at work. When she’s not inventing something, she’s always ready to sing at the local bar.
• John Cage (Peter MacNicol) – the second owner, together with Richard. He’s a small shy guy who’s still trying to hide his stutter. He’s the other “weirdo” in the firm and immediately bonds with Ally. He’s got the main talent to also date all the wrong women. As an attorney he’s meticulous and ferocious. The small man becomes a beast, when having to defend his clients.
• Renée Raddick (Lisa Nicole Carson) – the big bosom room-mate. Sexy and smart, she’s faced her problems in love too, but has to be there to support Ally, whenever she’s down.
• Nelle Porter (Portia de Rossi) – the superb blond attorney. The moment she joins the firm, it all goes to flames. She’s not only beautiful, but very good too and, who might have guessed, finds out she’s attracted to the little stuttering John Cage.
• Ling Woo (Lucy Liu) – the perfect mate for Richard. Soulless and smart, she’s starting her career as the “sue everyone” rich crazy lady and the realizes she’s actually got a diploma. A nice exotic addition to the cast.
• Billy Allen Thomas (Gil Bellows) – he is the ex-lover. The one who Ally still thinks about. Married and supposedly happy, he cannot prevent from still remembering their time together.
• Georgia Thomas (Courtney Thorne-Smith) – the wife. The enemy, the one who’s preventing Ally and Billy from living happily ever-after. At least this is the case in the beginning.
• Larry Paul (Robert Downey Jr.) – Ally’s big love after Billy is no longer of interest. He’s one of the greatest additions to the plot and him leaving the show was an unpleasant turn, caused by Robert Downey Jr.’s problem with drugs. Such a good actor, such a lousy person.

These are just some of the characters, the main ones in the show. As the series progressed some more joined the team, but for me these made Ally McBeal the success it was. Can’t wait to re-watch the show, as soon as I get back home to my DVD collection. I assume you’re familiar with it too, if not, do give it a try.

The story is pretty simple. We have two sisters Rose and Norah Lorkowski (Amy Adams and Emily Blunt … we saw them together in Charlie Wilson’s War few nights ago, what a coincidence) who try to make their small business work. Rose has a 7 year old son and her sister is as demanding as the kid, not being able to get by on her own. Since her maid job doesn’t pay that well, Rose gets a tip from her ex-school BF, who’s actually married now but loves a passionate night with her, while endlessly promising to divorce and marry her), about a business opportunity.

He’s a cop and finds out that cleaning a crime scene, even if gory, does pay pretty well.

The start is not easy, especially when you start from zero, but they do start getting some good revenue and becoming more professional, by being able to afford a van and all the protection equipment needed when dealing with bio hazard.

After Norah succeeds in burning down a house and leaving them with 40 thousands dollars to pay back (they are uninsured), Rose tries to really understand if this is the good option for her or maybe she should go back to her old job, which pays less but it doesn’t come with all this responsibility.

The movie could have worked as a comedy, but I think they try to show and deal with too much stuff. The 2 women still try to deal with their mother suicide, when they were little, their shaky relationship and other problems, so it’s getting close to a drama or at least a ‘dramedy’, since I’ve heard about this term pretty often lately.

Even if this won’t go in my top 5 movies of all time, it was still an interesting one. The best idea to get from it would be to have the courage to find your way and work. Even if cleaning crime scenes is not “fun” or even “cool”, it all comes down to earning a living and trying to provide for your family. In the end it’s good money and it’s been earned through hard work.

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is no stranger to this life. He’s been elected as a Texas liberal Democrat congressman and his life is simple and good. His staff is made up by voluptuous women, he’s filling some of his lonely nights with the right-wing Houston millionaire socialite Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), who is now alarmed of the attacks over Afghanistan by the Russian army. The USA cannot intervene officially, that’s for sure, but there’s gotta be a way to help the Afghans who are slaughtered like cattle by the aviation raids and the bombs planted on the ground.

The movie is based on George Crile’s book, published in 2003 and it looks like this Charlie Wilson is not a fictional character. Which of course will surely give us great confidence in our politicians.

So, back to the action.

Since they cannot send money and weapons without turning the “cold war” into a very nasty “normal” one, the USA have to look for another way. Because Joanne won’t settle with a “no” and Charlie, after a visit to a refugee camp in Afghanistan is so shaken he’s almost lost interest in late night boozing.

They need the help of the CIA and, since falling from his superior’s grace (after breaking the office window and impolitely asking the boss to f.. himself), Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman) doesn’t really have anything better to do, so he’s willing to support the cause.

The USA would have all the logistics, but they cannot afford to have any weapons marked “USA” in Afghanistan, so they need Soviet weapons. Paying for this is not an issue. From 5 to 10 million it takes just a meeting and people don’t really pay attention to what they are voting on. This is how Charles Wilson, as part of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, can get funding just with a call. Again, yet another showcase of how things are done by the people elected to guard the public interest.

Since the Israelis do have a lot of guns and could send them to Afghanistan through Pakistan, the only predicament is they cannot really be convinced to work together. Not to mention not even the Afghan people can know how they got helped. This is where Gust comes in handy. He knows the right Israeli guy to help them.

Charlie runs his little show from the shadow while also escaping arrest for coke-consuming in Las Vegas. How does he do it? The witness claims she’s seen him consuming in the Cayman Islands, out of the US jurisdiction. So, even if a proved sinner, he cannot be convicted.

This is the kind of politician he is. This is the kind many of them are. Still, when it comes to winning his secret war, Charlie did rise to the occasion. He was able to raise $1 billion to help with the war logistics. Still, the moment all was solved and the Afghan people could have used schools (half their population was under 14), the USA representatives who got involved in raising that billion, couldn’t be convinced to raise 1 million. Or, as Charlie had said:

These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world… and then we fucked up the endgame.

Even if a biographical political drama, the movie does have his funny scenes and is easy to watch, even by people who couldn’t care less about wars and politics. The cast is quite good and the 3 main actors are performing as expected. Totally recommended.

This show won’t teach you how to cook. It will though teach you to not settle for mediocre, even if you’re not a restaurant owner. It will teach the value of “keep it simple stupid” ideas and of constant bettering of oneself.

Each episode starts with a presentation. Of a sinisterly badly run restaurant, with horrific food, with bad manager and disgustingly filthy kitchens. And then he enters the show, ripping menus to shreds and making them short and sweet, teaching people to focus on the local produce and stop dreaming of fancy schmancy recipes, when they can’t even boil an egg, throw everything out and restock the pantry and then teaching the owners the lost art of cleaning those stinky floors.

Gordon Ramsey is the same as we know it from Hell’s Kitchen. Says the “f-word” 10 times a minute, curses them, yells, throws a fit. But all within reason. When you’re going bankrupt because you’re an idiot who cannot manage a restaurant and you have someone who’s a Michelin awarded chef, a multi-millionaire who grew his empire with sweat and tears, then you listen and do.

The show  is just amazing as the very down to earth ideas he’s instilling:

• keep the kitchen and pantry CLEAN (of course the rest of the restaurant too)
• don’t cook frozen food. Buy fresh local produce DAILY
• don’t have 300 items on the menu. Keep 20 but make them delicious
• be very organized. Don’t keep clients waiting.
• keep decent prices and try to make it worth for the client
• don’t cook gourmet when you can just cook some locally inspired food that’s super tasty and fresh

And many others.

It’s almost inspirational to see this guy talk with so much passion about his business, giving so many details and hints to the people asking for help. Of course he’s the abusive guy we all know, but he does make a sense. So, even if not too sweet, he means business and teaches it to those who want to listen.

I have enjoyed the series a lot (have seen the US version too, you can also watch it) so I am recommending the show

In the meantime Dr. Harrison Copeland (Patrick Dempsey) makes sure he’s covering the day from his concubine, so that he can spend some quality time with the official wife. Of course, as any gentleman would do, he does prepare some flower arrangements for them both. Bad karma makes him chose Reed’s flower shop for this and Reed is best friend with his lover.

Love is there for old guys too. Senior couple Edgar and Estelle (Shirley MacLaine) are celebrating many years together and do this with good perfume, flowers and a night out.

Young Edison, although still a kid, has got a serious crush on some girl and decides it’s the best moment to let her know about his true feelings. So he’s employing Reed too with a very important mission: take some flowers to the “woman” he loves.

In an airplane Captain Kate Hazeltine (Julia Roberts) counts the hours till she can be again with that someone special in her life. She’s an officer and she’d been away for the past 11 months.

Liz (Anne Hathaway) storms out of her boy-friend’s apartment since she’s almost late at work and, as soon as she’s on the street she answers the phone and starts a very disturbing sexual conversation with some guy with a Russian name. We later find out she’s been solving her financial issues by being a ‘sex call’ phone girl.

The only “normal” people who are not crazy with the event are Kara Monahan (Jessica Biel), who’s actually organizing a “I hate Valentine’s Day Party”, sportsman Sean Jackson (Eric Dane), Kelvin Moore (Jamie Foxx), a TV sports presenter who’s getting the task of covering the event and Paula Thomas (Queen Latifah).

And then it all goes wrong.

Proposals are rejected, old infidelities are confessed, new infidelities are found, preparations for the perfect sex get to a dead end, flowers are not being delivered on time etc. People break up for moronic reasons, the soon life shows them in love there’s more than bubbly champagne and flowers. And of course, because it’s a comedy in the end, everything sorta comes into place. The movie does offer some twists too, so you cannot really predict everything.

If you look at the cast, maybe you’re gonna have some high expectations, in the end there are some strong names in it. From this point of view the movie might under-deliver. On the other hand this is a comedy and no one claimed it should be more than that. There are enough funny situations to justify some good laughs too.

So, if you’re in for some cute pleasant story, with some good actors and some funny scenes too, you can make the “effort” to watch it. For two hours of entertainment, it surely does the job.

His life is not thrilling at all. At home there’s constant bickering and he’s got to take care of his 500 pounds mother too. She is sitting on the sofa all day and is only barking commands to the children who are near her. The only entertainment for Gilbert is chatting with his friend Bobby, who’s working at his dad’s funeral parlor and believes all people die to know about his business (pun unintended).

There’s some “romance” for him too, when Mrs. Carver (Mary Steenburgen), a lonely housewife calls the store and asks for a personal delivery that turns kinda intimate in few minutes. Endora, Iowa (1,091 population) is facing a drama: a new supermarket appears at the edge of the town, threatening the small grocery shop’s business.

Life becomes more interesting when Becky (Juliette Lewis) and her grandma (Penelope Branning) arrive. Well, they don’t quite arrive, it’s just a mechanical problem that forces them to remain there for some days, till the car is repaired. No one in his right minds would actually stop in Endora for a stay, so they are stuck in that forgotten place and meet Gilbert and Arnie.

A beautiful love story blossoms between the 2 young people, while the Grape family is preparing for Arnie‘s birthday, a great event for them since, based on the doctors’ prediction, he shouldn’t have lived this long.

Overall there’s little action in the movie, but the charm resides in the way everything is presented. With a bit of a funny take too, good acting and charming characters, even the family members who suffer from various issues. Leonardo DiCaprio is delivering a top performance, no wonder he was nominated for an Academy Award), Darlene Cates appears as the obese mother, Juliette Lewis and Johnny Depp are adorable too.

It’s been 2 decades almost since the movie was produces, so I doubt there are too many people who have failed to see it. Anyway, would love to hear your opinions on it. Was I the only to enjoy it?